Dieter Quester

This touring car legend began by racing speedboats in 1958 in a five-year career that included two European Championship titles in his class. He also tried bike racing before eventually hillclimbing a Porsche-powered Volkswagen Beetle in 1964. Now armed with a Porsche RS, Quester finished third at Aspern in his very first circuit race.

BMW Motorsport driver

It is with BMW that he will forever be associated. He joined the Munich-based manufacturer in 1965 and remained loyal to it throughout a racing career that spanned five decades. A class winner on Aspern’s airfield runways a year later, he won the European Touring Car Championship for the over-1600cc class in 1968 and 1969 with a BMW 2002.

He also raced the BMW 269 in selected Formula 2 races during 1969, a schedule that included the German Grand Prix. However, the team was withdrawn from the race after his team-mate Gerhard Mitter was killed in practice. Victory in the Hockenheim finale clinched a share of fourth in the 1970 European F2 Championship and he ended the year by winning the Formule Libre Macau GP.

He improved to third in the 1971 F2 standings after five podium finishes with Eifelland’s March 712M-BMW. His final F2 season came in 1974 after he was replaced in Team Harper’s Chevron B27-BMW after a couple of accidents strained his relationship with team manager Mike Earle.

Formula 1 one-off with Surtees

Quester finally made the only GP start of his career that year after he used sponsorship from Memphis cigarettes to hire a Surtees TS16-Ford for the Austrian GP. He qualified at the back and finished in ninth position in what was his last single-seater race.

Sports cars and the ETCC

Quester won a couple of World Championship of Makes races in 1976 with Schnitzer’s BMW 3.5 CSL before concentrating on the ETCC once more. He won that title in 1977 with an Alpina CSL before returning to Schnitzer to clinch the 1983 championship driving a 635CSi. He was still winning races when the ETCC was abandoned in 1988 – scoring his third victory in the Spa 24 Hours that year.

Eight appearances in the Le Mans 24 Hours included the biggest accident of his career in 1978. His Toleman Group Osella PA6-BMW led the 2000cc sports car class until he suffered a puncture at Tertre Rouge shortly before 1am. He emerged from the wreckage with nothing worse than a cut face.

He continued to represent BMW into his sixties as a respected veteran. He won 24-hour races in Dubai and at Silverstone during 2006 when driving M3 and Z4 machines respectfully and repeated the Silverstone success a year later.